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Another object of Christ’s temptations was, that having suffered being tempted, he might be able to “succour them that are tempted” (Heb. ii. 18). Able he certainly could have been, without tasting of our trials, or being personally assaulted with our temptations; but by his actually undergoing them, the weakest amongst us may be strengthened to believe in his ability, so as to have more freedom in pouring out their hearts before him and in showing him their trouble. If two persons can meet and converse together respecting the same necessities, distresses, and buffetings of Satan which each has undergone, how much does this conduce to their open-heartedness with one another, to their sympathy, and to their spiritual union. They disclose to each other their every inmost suffering; soul melts into soul; and while they enjoy such refreshment and delight, they count no time. With those who are strangers to their experience of our peculiar trials, we are not so readily communicative about them, because we expect no corresponding sympathy. Is there not then certain proof that we should have been far less communicative towards our highly exalted and heavenly Friend, had he not been our companion in tribulation, and a partaker of our every suffering? But now, how refreshing do we find it to know, that he himself was in all points tempted like as we are; that he was a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; that he well knows by personal experience the severest anguish of our souls; so that though no fellow mortal should be able to understand us, we have a Friend always at hand, of whom we are assured that he enters into every feeling of our condition (Psalm lvi. 8). His experience reaches down into our inmost darkness, into the profoundest depths of our spiritual temptation. Under no juniper of the desert can we sit solitary, but he has there sat down before us:
no thorn of the wilderness can wound us, but it has already wounded him: no fiery dart can assault us, but it has already assaulted him. Verily, he is touched with the feeling of all our infirmities: believe it only, dear Christian brethren, that when the Refiner sits at his furnace during the whole process of your trial and purification, his own holy and almighty heart, more than that of the most affectionate mother, feels sympathy for you in heaven. Therefore it was out of mere mercy and love towards a world of sinners, that God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up to the furnace of trial, and put into his hand the full cup of human woe.
It appears also, that herein he had an object with reference to the tempter himself; on account of the distinguished situation which the chief of the apostate angels occupies in the kingdom of spirits. If we put together the scattered notices of that fallen morning star, which are dropped in various parts of Scripture, we can hardly suppress our admiration and awe, at beholding something of the natural character of this degenerate prince of hell.
Satan, in the surprising ruins of his former unspeakable glory, is with good reason in Scripture introduced to our notice; for where among men can we find intelligence, prudence, perseverance, energy, and power like his? and, what is more astonishing, these are only the relics of his original glory;—the Satan, I say, of the Bible, still appears with a kind of majesty; not only in his being called a prince, and a mighty one, but even “the god of this world”; and we cannot but observe in Scripture that occasionally a kind of respect appears to be paid to his ruined dignity. The apostle Jude, in a passage, where, be it observed, he is producing a contrast to those who despise dominion and speak evil of dignities or magistrates, says, “Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. But these filthy dreamers speak evil of those things which they know not” (Jude 9, 10). In the book of Job, we behold the sons of God presenting themselves before Jehovah, and it is added, “Satan came also among them, to present himself before the Lord” (Job i. and ii.). And the Lord condescended to converse with him, and to ask him if he had considered his servant Job. And in reply to the subtle question of the false accuser, “Doth Job fear God for nought?” the Lord gave him power over all that belonged to that holy man; he permitted Satan to visit and to try him, that hell itself might learn that Divine strength can be perfected in human weakness. What a wonderful transaction! Surely it constrains us to say, that “the Almighty” considered it of some importance, that even the prince of darkness should acknowledge Deity, and give the Lord the glory due unto his name. And this is really the case; for at his name every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that he is Lord. Hence, likewise, it appears, that Satan was even permitted to take a look at the deep foundation of the work of redemption and reconciliation; and to do this more especially by tempting the Lamb of God’s provision, to try if he could find any fault with his unblemished purity; that our inveterate adversary might know Messiah’s
qualifications as a Surety to atone for human transgression; that he might know, that “Zion” is “redeemed with righteousness” (Isa. i. 27), and not with arbitrariness; and that he might never be able, with any show of justice, to protest against the salvation of God’s elect (Rom. viii. 33). When the wisest and most subtle of all rebellious spirits is compelled to astonishment at the wisdom of God, to admire his doings, to wonder in mute silence at the depth of his counsels, to commend, against his natural will and inclination, the equity of the Divine proceedings, and to give honour to God unto his own confusion, this surely tends not a little to the glory of the Divine name. One of the most solemn and sublime moments in the great day of full manifestation will be, when Satan himself shall be compelled to yield acknowledgment that the Lamb is worthy to receive glory, and honour, and power (Rev. v. 13); and shall feel constrained to bow at the name of another who is greater than he. This will amount to a consummation of praise second only to the halleluiahs of angels.